about maiden to mother

When we become a mother we create life and simultaneously move through one of the largest initiations of our own life. Certain spiritual traditions describe three stages in a woman’s life: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Each time we move into one of these new stages, we cross a threshold and each transition is a significant initiation. We must let go of certain ways of being and discover a new terrain. Motherhood invites us to turn outward and to re-center our lives around the new life we have created. We experience sensations and emotions that are new and often overwhelming. Our lives as they once were are dismantled only to be recreated anew with new perspective and vision. We can remember who we were and envision who we will become and know that we are all of these parts. The postpartum period is a critical time of honoring transition and restoring birth as a right of passage and postpartum as a time of renewal. Mothers are the heart and the foundation of a people, and when you take care of the mother the effects are felt in her family, in her community, affecting all of us.

The Maiden to Mother logo is intentionally reminiscent of a 3-circuit classical labyrinth. Pam England writes, “The labyrinth is an ancient, universal symbol representing our journey through life, ordeals and transitions. Its single, convoluted pathway begins at the opening, leads directly to the center and out again. The journey into the labyrinth’s center is symbolic of letting go and death (psychic or physical), and the journey from the center out of the labyrinth represents birth and rebirth.” The labyrinth is naturally associated with birth and motherhood. The labyrinth is a universal symbol, as is the spiral that has been added to its center. The spiral is a symbol of nature’s cycles, connection with the divine, and has long been associated with the Mother Goddess. As a feminine symbol, it is associated with birth and rebirth.

In the logo, the flower growing in the fecund womb represents our cyclical and creative nature. The roots represent groundedness and our connection to the Earth. Both the flower and roots are reminiscent of the placenta, the wise tree of life that sustains life in the womb.